There in the park, they spent time studying. They read in the green grimoire that they owned that forests were best for privacy. Half way through the silence Jake glanced at Maika. 

“I’ve been having odd dreams” 

“Really?”

 “ya…” 

“What kind of dreams?” Jake looked around 

“I keep dreaming of another world. Like another place full of extravagant quests and adventures…” 

“interesting” Maika remarked unimpressed. 

“I keep being told about something though...some sort of game..” Maika’s voice suddenly carried intrigue. 

“Game?”

 “Ya...my spirits keep mentioning it to me to. On the radio I hear references to it, it’s in songs and online like social media I see it plastered everywhere” 

“what...kind...of game?” 

“I wish I knew” Jake said. He did a quick look around to make sure no one was picking up on their conversation. 

“Well it’s probably paranoia don’t worry about it” Maika leaned back on the park bench and stretched out his feet. Jake looked at his friend as he closed the book.

“You know what that reminds me of” Maika commented nose deep within it. 

“What?” Jake asked. 

“This comic book called skybound” Jake smirked and punched his friend causing him to finally remove his eyes from the book he was skimming.  

“It’s this comic where a few kids play a video game that causes the apocalypse.” Jake laughed “this is real life dummy” 

“Ya I know but ya gotta admit it’s kinda eerie” Maika winked. The boys got up and walked back to Jake’s house. Jake flopped onto the floor panting for breath. 

“I know your chubby man but damn”

 “Shut up” Jake panted.  It looked pitiful.  Maika kicked off his shoes. It was unaccustomed in Jake’s house but a personal preference of Maikas. The teen slicked back his sharp blonde hair with the comb he always kept in his pocket. 

“Anyways what do you have to eat?” 

“Check the fridge” Jake was finally beginning to catch his breath. Maika set everything up. He knew Jake’s house almost as well as he had known his own. 

Jake turned on the radio using the Pandora app on his phone. Pandora  was a website/app where you could make custom radio stations based off one or two songs. Even an artist in fact. It was named after the myth of Pandora's box. Where all the evils of the world were unleashed upon the opening of a box. It was great for general listening. Maika made himself a grilled cheese and offered jake up some soda. Maika personally could never bare the taste.  They ended up watching the documentary 3 times that night. Jake was obsessed with watching it over and over again and constantly taking notes. Maika felt his friend a bit much. Jake suffered from intense OCD but you’d never notice it unless he was comfortable with you.

Eventually the boys got talking. Maika walked over to Jake sitting at the table now. 

"I just want to know, call me curious but what are you selling it for?" Jake was taken aback. 

"You really wanna know?"

 "I mean ya. I am kinda helping you here" Maika was unimpressed. 

"I want to be important. And a good painter. That too. To be honest there's an entire of list and I'm not sure I should call it out" 

"Can you do that?" 

"What do you mean?" Jake pondered. 

"Can you ask for a lot of stuff?" Jake started shaking his leg. 

"It's my soul dude I want my money's worth."

 Maika sighed. "What if they try to screw you over?" 

"Again from what I've read demons are teachers wanting to enlighten people. It's not in their motivation to 'screw me over get that old testement mumbo jumbo out of your brain Maika'" Jake made air quotations. 

"But you will be their slave" 

"something akin to that. Oh and one more thing"

 "what?" 

"everybody who does this goes crazy at some point so at some point during this process I'm going to loose my mind"

 "okay" Maika said with a waver and a sigh. 

"Also...once you start this process there's no going back...so now that I’ve even just decided to do it....I can't back out or my life will descend into hell"

 "your so stupid" Maika commented. Quips like these were common place for Maika to make towards Jake. He never meant them jokingly he just had a flair for insults. Jake got up and walked towards the t.v. "whatever".